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    Steve M
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SmartFade 1248 acting slightly odd

Last week, the glowing ETC logo on the SmartFade 1248 that I work on went from blue to red, and it now restores factory default settings (including  clearing the patch, mems, stack, etc...) when being disconnected from power for some time. When plugged in and running, there are no performance issues (nor have there been any hint of any before now), but I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't the precursor to a bigger problem, e.g. the console dying and about 500 people sitting in a blackout. Here are some facts that may (or may not) be helpful:

- We've owned the console for nearly 3 years now. I've updated the firmware regularly (now on 3.0) and there has never seemed to be any problems.

- It's in use for about 8 hours every Sunday morning, and the rest of the week it's disconnected at sitting in a flight case.

- I ran the self-test after this happened, and every test passed successfully.

- Other than this problem, the console has not been acting any differently.

Any thoughts?

  • How long of a power disconnection does it take to cause it to lose the memory?  Any unit will do this after some amount of time, as there is just a super-capacitor inside retaining the memory, and it will deplete over time.  Judging from your other comments, if it's powered up at least once a week, this should not be happening (the one I use at my church will easily retain memory for a few months unplugged), and it should come in for service.

    As for the logo LED changing color, I've seen this on another unit too.  There are two LEDs that light the logo (red and blue, of course), and it is possible for one to fail, leaving just the color of the other LED to light the logo.  Obviously this could also be fixed if it were sent in for repair.

  • in reply to mgarrison

    Exactly how long it's disconnected before it loses memory, I'm not sure. On rare occasions, it's used multiple times a week, but the longest that it goes without power is just a few hours short of one week.

    With regards to the logo, I thought that may have been the situation (since it was a purple-ish blue), but I didn't think that the red LED was as intense as it appears to be without its blue counterpart. If it's simply an LED gone bad, then there's no reason to worry there. Thanks.

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